Article Description

From a complete overhaul of code to the addition of new functionality into the application, Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 is proving to be a very worthwhile upgrade. RC Concepcion takes a look at some of the standout features of Photoshop CS5.

Like this article? We recommend

Adobe’s unleashed their Creative Suite CS5 on the world! From a complete overhaul of code to the addition of new functionality into the application, Photoshop CS5 is proving to be a very worthwhile upgrade. With it, you’ll be happy to know that you’re getting a great dose of “Wow” as well as efficiency in your workflow that will pay off as you explore more with it. Let’s take a look at some of the standout features of Photoshop CS5.

64 Bit Performance

One of the biggest changes in Photoshop CS5 has to do with the overall architecture of the application. After 20 years hard at work serving the community, Photoshop CS5 is rewritten from the ground up as a 64 bit application. The application now sports a clean look with new icons and a streamlined interface. The icons have changed a little bit to be a little bluer and crisper, being based on Cocoa widgets.

In earlier versions of Photoshop, dragging a layer resulted in seeing a dotted black box. You now see a very opaque layer (called a Ghosted Layer), letting you know exactly what you are moving around – a great change if you ask me.

Another great change is the amount of RAM that you can use in the program. Previously you were only able to use a Maximum of 4GB of RAM in the application. Now with 64 bit, you are only limited by the amount of RAM your machine is able to support. With more and more machines coming with greater amounts of RAM, this will be a welcome boon to designers. The more RAM you have, the easier it is to work with larger images and compositions in Photoshop.